1. Tampa Bay
2. Boston
3. San Jose
4. Calgary
5. Toronto
Let us appreciate Tampa Bay. They have been at this one spot since literally November. They might have 100 points before March even starts! Hell this has a chance to be one of the greatest regular season teams of all time. They don’t just beat opponents they demolish them. Boston is surging at the right time. San Jose made a great move adding Gustav Nyquist at the trade deadline and Toronto is starting to strengthen defensively.
6. Nashville
7. Columbus
8. Winnipeg
9. New York Islanders
10. Washington
Fortune favors the bold. The Predators and Blue Jackets made big moves at the deadline, Wayne Simmonds (Preds) Matt Duchesne (Jackets), betting on themselves to go on runs this year. New York is oddly one of the deepest teams in the league and the fact that they are such a team centric organization might just push them to the top of a tight division.
11. Vegas
12. Saint Louis
13. Carolina
14. Pittsburgh
15. Montreal
Vegas got arguably the biggest toy of the trade deadline in Mark Stone. They’ve struggled in recent weeks but even though there behind this team could go on a huge run and snatch the division especially from a Flames team that made relatively few moves.
16. Colorado
17. Minnesota
18. Buffalo
19. Dallas
20. Arizona
Colorado’s move for Derrick Brassard gives them much needed Center depth. Outside of that though Brassards numbers haven’t been great this year and I really don’t see the point of the trade. Meanwhile the Stars lost there big acquisition Matt Zucarello to a broken arm against the Blackhawks. These are the bubble teams for sure, all of them could make the playoffs but only two will.
21. Florida
22. Chicago
23. New York Rangers
24. Philadelphia
25. New Jersey
26. Edmonton
27. Vancouver
28. Ottawa: This needs some explanation, this team got tremendous value back for players that were going to leave them this summer. They made excellent moves and are on the right path to rebuilding.
29. Anaheim
30. Detroit
31. Los Angeles